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Asimina triloba (pawpaw)

One of the Midwest's most distinctive trees, pawpaw (Asimina triloba) features foot-long leaves, unforgettable springtime flowers, and funky fruits that develop over the course of the summer. It is an understory tree, usually found in moist, low lying areas in small thickets. No other Midwestern trees look similar, with the possible exception of Kentucky's big-leaf magnolia, but the latter tree's leaves are even larger (2–3 feet long!) and, like all magnolias, it produces conspicuous cones.

Pawpaw fruits are edible and popular, but we have not tried them. According to several of our sources the fruits of some trees are less palatable than the fruits of others. For this reason cultivators have developed consistently palatable fruits—like those celebrated and consumed every year in Athens County, Ohio, where the annual Pawpaw Festival draws thousands of pawpaw enthusiasts.

Midwestern range
midwestern range

Asimina triloba
pawpaw is usually an understory tree in low, wet ecosystems

 

Asimina triloba
leaves are very large—up to a foot or more in length


Asimina triloba
distinctive wine-colored flowers appear in spring; there are 3 outer petals and 3 inner petals (hence the species epithet "triloba")


Asimina triloba
bark is thin and gray

 

Asimina triloba
occasionally pawpaw reaches 30 feet or more

 

Asimina triloba
distinctive petioles


Asimina triloba
fruits develop in summer and mature in fall

 

Asimina triloba
young fruit

Asimina triloba
fruits often develop in clusters


Asimina triloba
fruits are fleshy inside, with two rows of flatened, orangish seeds


Asimina triloba
leaves are green in the summer . . .

Asimina triloba
. . . and begin to turn in early fall . . .

 

Asimina triloba
. . . developing rich yellow colors




References: Harlow 1946, Peattie 1948, GN Jones 1971, Miller & Jaques 1978, Kricher & Morrison 1988, Preston 1989, RL Jones 2005, Mohlenbrock 2006, Kershaw 2007, Sibley 2009, Voss & Reznicek 2012, Dey 2014, Mohlenbrock 2014, Hilty 2021, USDA 2021.



Kuo, Michael & Melissa Kuo (November, 2021). Asimina triloba (pawpaw). Retrieved from the midwestnaturalist.com website: www.midwestnaturalist.com/asimina_triloba.html

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